not crazy much

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned on here but Isabelle stopped taking swimming and started archery. When we first signed Isabelle up for swimming classes we wanted her to learn how to swim. But she learned that ages ago. We kept bringing her because she enjoyed it.

Well, a few months ago I didn’t want any more sticky knitting needles. Yes I know, this conversation seems like it’s gone off track. But it hasn’t. Stick with me. Why were they sticky, you ask? Well, Nathan kept asking me to tape yarn onto my knitting needles making them into bows. He wasn’t shooting anything with them. He just wanted to play with a bow. I tried getting him a cheap add on from Amazon toy bow. But the string kept popping off. I don’t know why I should have been surprised for the $4 I paid. I was tired of constantly fixing it or trying to find the string that would always get lost.

And I didn’t want to put tape on any more of my needles so I thought I’d get him a real kid’s bow that wouldn’t break. When it arrived, Nathan wasn’t much interested in it. It was too large to play make believe with. But Alan asked Isabelle if she would like to try shooting it in the backyard. She enjoyed it so much, we looked into classes. Now every Saturday she has JOAD, Junior Olympic Archery Development.

Soon after Isabelle started with JOAD, we found out that my friend, Olinda, had started archery around the same time. What a crazy coincidence. She knows a lot more about it than we do. She goes shooting practically every day and has her own bow. She even made her own quiver! So, we’ve been asking her questions.

Well, yesterday Olinda invited us out to join her at San Francisco Archers for their outreach program. I called my sister, Helen, to bring her kids along. And we all headed out to Pacifica to go shooting. It’s very cool. For $5 a person there was an introductory class and then you get to shoot.

I think the best part was when they stuck balloons onto the targets. There is something so fun about trying to shoot a balloon. Note the word, TRY. I didn’t hit any balloons. Boo! But Isabelle, Alan, and my nephew, Ebow, did. I did get a couple of bulls-eyes….when there were no balloons. I put it down to too many people shooting at the same target. Maybe if I were a little faster I would have been the one to pop a balloon.

Alan’s birthday was on Wednesday. He turned 40! And I did something rather unusual. I practically shot no pictures. I did, however, shoot some video. Not as much as Isabelle, who I discovered on downloading the videos had taken 30 minutes worth of video! Well here they are, snippets from our day: